A blog about navigating the realities, struggles, and frustrations of life while unemployed—with a positive outlook. Opinion commentary pieces on unemployment and hiring plus informative articles & tips on life learning, career, well-being.

Interviewer Biases To Be Aware Of In Job Searching

As a job seeker, you know job interviews are an important part of the potential new hire selection and hiring process. If you’ve landed an interview for a job, you’re advised to properly prepare for success.

Additionally, you, the interviewee, are told to connect with your interviewers and sell yourself as the “best person for the job.” If you don’t, you’ve failed the interview.

Sometimes, you, as a candidate, don’t get an offer – even when you’ve followed all of the career advice regarding interviewing. And, upon not securing a job offer, you accept your failure, pick yourself up from the fall, and wonder where you went wrong.

Immediately, you analyze your interviewing skills for improvement to overcome any interviewee negatives you may have. This also helps with behavioral improvement for future interviews.

This is good because job seeking candidates should always keep it real with themselves.

Interviewer Biases To Be Aware Of In Job Searching Unsplash Original Photo Courtesy of Bethany Legg. Edited by Me.

Interviewer(s) Biases

However, please know there’s more to the process than failure on the behalf of the candidates in many cases.

As such, what if something else possibly influenced the decision makers? Something less talked about but important nonetheless.

What could possibly influence them?

Interviewer Biases, which cloud an interviewer’s ability to rate you as you deserve to be rated in your candidacy.

Have you ever gotten past an interview and sensed there was more to you not being selected for the position than you not having the right skills and qualifications? I definitely have.

So, this article is not written to send you into a state of paranoia prior to your interviews. It’s written to inform you of possible assumptions affecting recruiting decisions.

Back on Track: If you’ve ever sensed this as well, please read on!

On careercast.com, Taunee Besson, President of Career Dimensions, Inc. and Senior Columnist at CareerCast published an article titled Recruiter Biases You Can’t Control. In this article, she states the following:

“Recruiters may also have hidden or misconceived agendas, which spring from past experiences and attitudes that resist rational attempts to change them. Many of these biases are unconscious and have little to do with the candidate personally, even though they can definitely affect his or her chances of getting hired.”

From Me to You (To Job Seekers): Be aware of recruitment biases but don’t focus on them. Just be yourself and give these interviews your best.

Continue to learn from your interviewing experiences and improve yourself. From there, keep it moving!

To Interviewers: Objectivity and impartiality are critical to hiring processes in order to avoid passing on a strong candidate. Consider biases clouding your ability to accurately rate job candidates before making your decision.

Additional Resources

If you’re interested in overcoming these interview biases where possible, you can check out: